How do you see the physical health, or lack of health, impacting your classroom? What are the explicit and implicit messages you give youth about their health and physical development, both positive and (inadvertently) negative? What efforts does your school make to support physical health and education?
I think I see more of the negative on this topic; lack of time for movement and play really impacting my classroom. It is hard to strike a balance at our school sometimes; I feel pressure to mold my students into perfect little scholars, but at the same time, I know students need more time to be physically active.
This is one area where I have always felt kind of a conflict between my own thinking and the school's philosophy. Having worked in schools at the opposite end of the SES spectrum, where movement, free play and creativity were paramount, I know that both systems can have immense payoff. It has been hard to strike a balance between what I feel comfortable with and the cultural expectations of the school. I am definitely still working on this.
Last year, I would often take my students outside to do our daily Read Aloud-- especially as we began reading chapter books together as a class. They would still need to be in LEARN position, still focused and listening attentively... but it made me feel at least a little bit better that they were spending time outdoors. Honestly, I think our 20 minute recess + their time with Coach Jessica is just not enough. They need more activity, more time exploring and enjoying the outdoors. I am so glad that the camping trip exists, but I wish we had hte funding and ability to do smaller-scale outdoor experience type of programs for the younger grades. If has made me think of our grade-level parent-family meeting being something outdoor/hiking/exercise related, just to give students that exposure that they may not necessarily be getting at home.
One thing I have been asking parents on my home visits is what their students are doing afterschool, especially since some of them now do get home at a reasonable hour. I have been advocating giving their students a break from homework to go outside and play after school, instead of doing homework and then staying inside to watch TV. Most parents have been pretty receptive of this, and it seems like most students are capable of getting their homework done in a reasonable amount of time independently this year. I have been happy that some parents have enrolled students in other activities; church afterschool programs where the students get to use the playground equipment, cheerleading, dance, football, soccer, karate, swimming, It is nice to hear that parents are taking the initiative to have hteir students involved in these activities.
I feel like I was much better about being explicit about healthy living last year than I am this year; I probably should put in more of an effort. My students last year all knew that they should be drinking water or milk with lunch instead of soda, that they should be eating fruits and veggies, etc. I took the opportunity, whenever possible, to remind them about healthy choices. This year I have only talked about it in relation to the core value of responsibility; working in messages about healthy diet and exercise into my morning message and their journal prompts will probably be a good way to get these points across without "loosing" learning time.
The yardsticks article really gave me a lot of proverbial food for thought; there were elements of it that Alicia and I were laughing about (i.e. my chewed up pencil bin being a natural thing for a six year old- we have often referred to them as goats since they WILL chew anything) but lots more that I just don't feel like quite fit with our cultural expectations and 100 culture items. Striking a healthy balance is not easy and I know I will need to keep working on this.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
107, Healthy Development
Question:
I'm not sure this is so much a question as it is something that I'm somewhat irked by, but I was frustrated by the over-simplifications on the role that gender plays in behavior and therefore achievement. The reading mentioned the issue with Kolberg's theory for instance, as being male-focused or male-dominant. It also talked about girls as having more care-based or altruistic social connections (Chapter 13, p. 436)-- this seems like it may occur moreso at the high school level but I think in first grade, at least over the course of the last year, I have seen males associate almost equally as much in this way. I also question the idea of masculine "helping" roles (i.e. boys will be more willing to help in situations that are actually dangerous- p. 442); I'd love to see this experiment done at the elementary level and see the results!
Comment:
It has been interesting for me to read these articles and work on this unit so far. I took a child development course back in high school, plus a few high school psych and sociology classes that talked about a lot of what I'm reading I have already read before. At the same time, it's totally different to read it now that I see it playing out every day in the classroom. On the other hand, when I was taking the child development class I also worked as an assistant teacher in a preschool-- it is so amazing to reflect on the difference that two years or even only a year and a half makes in terms of development!
I also thought the information presented about empathy was interesting (Chapter 13, p. 437)-- basically that around four years old, children begin to develop some sense of empathy and connection to others that helps develop sharing skills, etc. I have found that empathy is the most abstract of Rocketship's Core Values for the students. They struggle most with the idea that they should care about other people's feelings and make choices that demonstrate an understanding of others feelings and perspectives. I think, in retrospect, maybe the reason for this is partially developmental. It has always felt somewhat strange to me to teach empathy explicitly-- how do you teach someone to care? Some kids seem to be very genuinely empathetic naturally (I have 2 particularly empathetic students in my Thoroughbreds class that come to mind); many others are totally oblivious.
Quote:
"As children move into the middle and late childhood years, parents spend considerably less time with them. In one study, parents spent less than half the time with their children aged 5 to 12 in caregiving, instruction, reading and talking as when their children were younger." This quote really stood out with me because I think it's exactly what Rocketship as a community is trying to ward off with our homework packets and reading packets. We are ensuring that parents ARE taking that time; we can see on a daily basis that our students still need the support of people reading with them, giving them that attention, etc. It all plays into child development and I think we need to continue to work to make sure that those aspects aren't neglected.
I'm not sure this is so much a question as it is something that I'm somewhat irked by, but I was frustrated by the over-simplifications on the role that gender plays in behavior and therefore achievement. The reading mentioned the issue with Kolberg's theory for instance, as being male-focused or male-dominant. It also talked about girls as having more care-based or altruistic social connections (Chapter 13, p. 436)-- this seems like it may occur moreso at the high school level but I think in first grade, at least over the course of the last year, I have seen males associate almost equally as much in this way. I also question the idea of masculine "helping" roles (i.e. boys will be more willing to help in situations that are actually dangerous- p. 442); I'd love to see this experiment done at the elementary level and see the results!
Comment:
It has been interesting for me to read these articles and work on this unit so far. I took a child development course back in high school, plus a few high school psych and sociology classes that talked about a lot of what I'm reading I have already read before. At the same time, it's totally different to read it now that I see it playing out every day in the classroom. On the other hand, when I was taking the child development class I also worked as an assistant teacher in a preschool-- it is so amazing to reflect on the difference that two years or even only a year and a half makes in terms of development!
I also thought the information presented about empathy was interesting (Chapter 13, p. 437)-- basically that around four years old, children begin to develop some sense of empathy and connection to others that helps develop sharing skills, etc. I have found that empathy is the most abstract of Rocketship's Core Values for the students. They struggle most with the idea that they should care about other people's feelings and make choices that demonstrate an understanding of others feelings and perspectives. I think, in retrospect, maybe the reason for this is partially developmental. It has always felt somewhat strange to me to teach empathy explicitly-- how do you teach someone to care? Some kids seem to be very genuinely empathetic naturally (I have 2 particularly empathetic students in my Thoroughbreds class that come to mind); many others are totally oblivious.
Quote:
"As children move into the middle and late childhood years, parents spend considerably less time with them. In one study, parents spent less than half the time with their children aged 5 to 12 in caregiving, instruction, reading and talking as when their children were younger." This quote really stood out with me because I think it's exactly what Rocketship as a community is trying to ward off with our homework packets and reading packets. We are ensuring that parents ARE taking that time; we can see on a daily basis that our students still need the support of people reading with them, giving them that attention, etc. It all plays into child development and I think we need to continue to work to make sure that those aspects aren't neglected.
Monday, April 20, 2009
111: Differentiation of Special Needs Student
Prompt: One of the key elements of TPA task 2-4 (and a key element of effective teaching) relates to how you differentiate, accomodate and/or modify your teaching to make sure that you systematically meet the special needs students and still make sure that they achieve the expected outcomes of the course. How do you make sure that special needs students meet your UbD outcomes and are successful on their assessments despite their disabilities? What do you need to improve?
I think one of the things that I have realized more and more recently is that I need to find my own 'style' especially in dealing with students outside of the mainstream. When we recently went on a classroom visit to a school at Stanford, the classroom was so open, unregimented and calm. While it did stand in total opposition to the type of teacher that our school site wants us to be, there was also an amazing (and nearly infectious) creative energy going around- the differentiation was incredible too! It really inspired me to step back and re-evaluate the time I am spending with my struggling students. It was such a positive for the children in this classroom-- doing special projects, having additional steps built in to ensure completion of a task (such as having their work 'pre-edited' by a parent, then typed back for them to evaluate themselves), etc. It was definitely apparent that there was a path to success for these students, and there are some critical links missing with my own. While I am not sure how well it would be recieved at our school, I think that a lot of what I read up on in Chapter 2 (movement, wait time, environment, lighting, 'safe space', softer relationships with the students, etc) could potentially really help my strugglers to feel safe with their challenges rather than hiding, averting their eyes, avoiding putting up their hand, etc. I also loved the idea of students learning how to self-monitor their own 'attention level' and having to guide them on how to pay attention- something I majorly lacked in my first semester of teaching. Whereas learning how to be a student came so naturally for other students, I questioned why these few kids couldn't just stay in their chair, keep their eyes on me, etc. Now I see that there were so many other factors in play most likely, that I had not even considered-- emotional/developmental maturity, etc.
There are a few ways that I think I've gotten decent at differentiating this year, or at least have made improvements in the last few months. I am fortunate to have E. in my class-- a student with mild emotional/developmental needs as well as fairly minor academic challenges. Despite his challenges, he is super cooperative, eager to please and really willing to let me try out new tactics on him before moving them onto other students. Communicating with his team of support staff there to help him has really helped me understand some 'small ways' to help my learning disabled students out, and it has made a HUGE difference. For instance, I was able to get an inflatable 'balance' cushion for students to sit on when they are struggling with moving in their chairs, two small rugs to place outside of the classroom carpet for students who need more individual space, and a weighted vest suggested by an Occupational Therapist to help the student regain focus or balance, especially when transitioning from a more physical activity to a more sedate one.
At the same time, there are some pieces I'm definitely missing. While I'm getting better about chants and movements, I still do not do nearly enough (especially not for D, a student with an IEP for speech who is still really struggling with spoken English). I need to work on incorporating this more-- I did just get a set of chants to try out in terms of grammar/vocab building and I'm excited to try these out. There is so much from the two articles that really I'd like to see if I can experiment with this year, to see if it helps me be more effective and find my teaching strategy with those specific lowest students. I often comment that I feel like I've found my teaching style with my 'other 34' but still can't figure out how to reach my lowest six. At this point, anything is worth a try-- be it better lighting, more movement, more sound, rhythms, bell sounds/transition sounds, effacy/personal responsibility individual reporting, etc.
I think that this course should give me a jumping off point to work with those six students-- and I think I'll really be able to devise a plan that more effectively hits their needs. As of now, I have all sorts of extra time blocked into the day for them, which I feel is somewhat taking away from my instruction of other students, but needs to be done because there is such a wide gap in my classroom right now between the 'low kids' and 'everyone else'. Until this gap closes a bit, I feel pretty powerless to help others when some are struggling so very much. However, in reading and thinking about this unit, I think there may be a huge part of me that is approaching my instruction of these students wrong, and perhaps that is really contributing to their lack of success. I plan on revising my plan for these students that I have with the academic dean to reflect some of the things I will come away from this course with.
I think one of the things that I have realized more and more recently is that I need to find my own 'style' especially in dealing with students outside of the mainstream. When we recently went on a classroom visit to a school at Stanford, the classroom was so open, unregimented and calm. While it did stand in total opposition to the type of teacher that our school site wants us to be, there was also an amazing (and nearly infectious) creative energy going around- the differentiation was incredible too! It really inspired me to step back and re-evaluate the time I am spending with my struggling students. It was such a positive for the children in this classroom-- doing special projects, having additional steps built in to ensure completion of a task (such as having their work 'pre-edited' by a parent, then typed back for them to evaluate themselves), etc. It was definitely apparent that there was a path to success for these students, and there are some critical links missing with my own. While I am not sure how well it would be recieved at our school, I think that a lot of what I read up on in Chapter 2 (movement, wait time, environment, lighting, 'safe space', softer relationships with the students, etc) could potentially really help my strugglers to feel safe with their challenges rather than hiding, averting their eyes, avoiding putting up their hand, etc. I also loved the idea of students learning how to self-monitor their own 'attention level' and having to guide them on how to pay attention- something I majorly lacked in my first semester of teaching. Whereas learning how to be a student came so naturally for other students, I questioned why these few kids couldn't just stay in their chair, keep their eyes on me, etc. Now I see that there were so many other factors in play most likely, that I had not even considered-- emotional/developmental maturity, etc.
There are a few ways that I think I've gotten decent at differentiating this year, or at least have made improvements in the last few months. I am fortunate to have E. in my class-- a student with mild emotional/developmental needs as well as fairly minor academic challenges. Despite his challenges, he is super cooperative, eager to please and really willing to let me try out new tactics on him before moving them onto other students. Communicating with his team of support staff there to help him has really helped me understand some 'small ways' to help my learning disabled students out, and it has made a HUGE difference. For instance, I was able to get an inflatable 'balance' cushion for students to sit on when they are struggling with moving in their chairs, two small rugs to place outside of the classroom carpet for students who need more individual space, and a weighted vest suggested by an Occupational Therapist to help the student regain focus or balance, especially when transitioning from a more physical activity to a more sedate one.
At the same time, there are some pieces I'm definitely missing. While I'm getting better about chants and movements, I still do not do nearly enough (especially not for D, a student with an IEP for speech who is still really struggling with spoken English). I need to work on incorporating this more-- I did just get a set of chants to try out in terms of grammar/vocab building and I'm excited to try these out. There is so much from the two articles that really I'd like to see if I can experiment with this year, to see if it helps me be more effective and find my teaching strategy with those specific lowest students. I often comment that I feel like I've found my teaching style with my 'other 34' but still can't figure out how to reach my lowest six. At this point, anything is worth a try-- be it better lighting, more movement, more sound, rhythms, bell sounds/transition sounds, effacy/personal responsibility individual reporting, etc.
I think that this course should give me a jumping off point to work with those six students-- and I think I'll really be able to devise a plan that more effectively hits their needs. As of now, I have all sorts of extra time blocked into the day for them, which I feel is somewhat taking away from my instruction of other students, but needs to be done because there is such a wide gap in my classroom right now between the 'low kids' and 'everyone else'. Until this gap closes a bit, I feel pretty powerless to help others when some are struggling so very much. However, in reading and thinking about this unit, I think there may be a huge part of me that is approaching my instruction of these students wrong, and perhaps that is really contributing to their lack of success. I plan on revising my plan for these students that I have with the academic dean to reflect some of the things I will come away from this course with.
Monday, April 6, 2009
110: Equity Resources
After browsing through a few other resources, I chose to really look at the Rethinking Schools site. I was more than impressed with what I saw, but most impressed with the quarterly magazine. I read a few of the articles-- the one that stuck with me most was about the integration of technology in the classroom. I've over and over again said that I should try to get some grant money (or Donors Choose) to get a projector in my room-- having the kids huddled around my computer in the classroom is not ideal at all. I know from home visits that very few of them had computers in the home-- and if they did, they were not up to speed with modern technology. Reading the article-- about how much access to technology can affect end result in education brought me back to that. However, the article also put things into perspective-- what we stand to lose by over-emphasizing technology in education. Would it push consumer culture? Or disadvantage those students who did not learn best that way? The article, in the end, left me thinking that while I think better technology in my room still could really positively impact UbD (and give some students outside context), it is not the saving grace that I had previously imagined it to be.
I also really liked the listing of links/other resources that Rethinking Schools Online had. I was already familiar with using the ERIC database from a few college papers, but this list encompassed just about anything I could possibly need in terms of academic journals designed to improve cross-cultural equity. I could see myself coming back to this list in my planning next fall and to get new ideas of ways to ensure that my classroom becomes more and more equitable.
I also really liked the listing of links/other resources that Rethinking Schools Online had. I was already familiar with using the ERIC database from a few college papers, but this list encompassed just about anything I could possibly need in terms of academic journals designed to improve cross-cultural equity. I could see myself coming back to this list in my planning next fall and to get new ideas of ways to ensure that my classroom becomes more and more equitable.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
112: QQCCalla Handbook Chapter 3
Quote: "In our view, academic language can be best identified by describing the language functions and the level of the thinking skills needed to engage in specific content activities. Thus discrete language elements such as vocabulary, grammatical structures, spelling and pronunciation are integrated into the language functions used in the content activity, not taught as separate functions of content subjects." (41) This piece stood out for me for a few reasons. First off, because I see so much success with this in my classroom amongst some of my higher readers-- they are so much more willing to try out new vocabulary that they have picked up from a book. I have been reading Alice in Wonderland to them lately, for instance, and it has been awesome to see them using some of the more obscure words that we have pulled out as our vocab from the book, as well as some of the words that we did not specifically define but that I think they pulled from context. On the other hand, I think my lower readers are often disserved by the lack of grammatical sophistication in what they are reading. This is something I had touched on when our reading consultant came for professional development lately-- that they do not get the "fun", quality literature from which vocab can really explode. This is something that I am trying to make more of a priority in my classroom.
Question:
In a classroom with a wide range of ELLs, what is worthwhile to target in terms of vocabulary? I am pretty decent about pulling this out when I'm creating UbD units, but really poor about integrating academic vocab otherwise. Resources of what academic vocab a first grader should have by the end of the year? Most useful?
Comment: I think I got a lot out of reading this chapter. I really had not put that much thought into academic language versus social language, and in recent CFUs since beginning this unit, I've found that vocabulary is way more of an issue than I had previously realized.
Question:
In a classroom with a wide range of ELLs, what is worthwhile to target in terms of vocabulary? I am pretty decent about pulling this out when I'm creating UbD units, but really poor about integrating academic vocab otherwise. Resources of what academic vocab a first grader should have by the end of the year? Most useful?
Comment: I think I got a lot out of reading this chapter. I really had not put that much thought into academic language versus social language, and in recent CFUs since beginning this unit, I've found that vocabulary is way more of an issue than I had previously realized.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Teaching ELL: Self-Assessment Summary
This is a unit that I am really looking forward to and hoping to grow from. It is perhaps where I feel most inadequate in my teaching. Without a solid knowledge base in my student's native language, I often feel like I lack in several of the 'best practices' categories and I really strive to become stronger in this regard
The categories that I think I am weakest in are using my assessments to inform instruction, specifically with my kids that are still learning basic English. I'd say that most of my in-class work is geared toward students at the CELDT level 3-4 [since this is where the bulk of my students are currently] and I have not yet totally adapted to meet the needs of my students at CELDT-2. I am only just know getting better at working on issues of sentence structure/word order with my lowest ELLs as well-- I had falsely assumed that it would just 'come' with more practice/English-only interaction. Parts of speech and word order are proving to be a major challenge.
I'm also really week in terms of respect for home language and cutlure. I am constantly praising them for being able to speak Spanish/ "talking up" being bilingual, but I really don't know enough about their culture. I constantly finding myself thinking that I need to read up on this, but have not have time yet. I want to understand their culture better, but with the language barrier... my conversations with their parents about this have not been as productive as I had hoped.
I am probably strongest in terms of using the GLAD strategies for UbD, and I'll even admit that I did not do the best job of this during past units. So far with geography I've used a KWL, T-Chart, Web, Input Chart, CCD, etc... and I have been really trying to focus on bringing more visuals in to my UBD as well as Blending, Read-Alouds, etc. I marked myself highest on Meaningful, Thematic instruction and Models/Visuals/Graphic Organizers. This seems to be an area where I am finally now getting confident about using these strategies, but I still look forward to more improvement as I learn more from this unit.
The categories that I think I am weakest in are using my assessments to inform instruction, specifically with my kids that are still learning basic English. I'd say that most of my in-class work is geared toward students at the CELDT level 3-4 [since this is where the bulk of my students are currently] and I have not yet totally adapted to meet the needs of my students at CELDT-2. I am only just know getting better at working on issues of sentence structure/word order with my lowest ELLs as well-- I had falsely assumed that it would just 'come' with more practice/English-only interaction. Parts of speech and word order are proving to be a major challenge.
I'm also really week in terms of respect for home language and cutlure. I am constantly praising them for being able to speak Spanish/ "talking up" being bilingual, but I really don't know enough about their culture. I constantly finding myself thinking that I need to read up on this, but have not have time yet. I want to understand their culture better, but with the language barrier... my conversations with their parents about this have not been as productive as I had hoped.
I am probably strongest in terms of using the GLAD strategies for UbD, and I'll even admit that I did not do the best job of this during past units. So far with geography I've used a KWL, T-Chart, Web, Input Chart, CCD, etc... and I have been really trying to focus on bringing more visuals in to my UBD as well as Blending, Read-Alouds, etc. I marked myself highest on Meaningful, Thematic instruction and Models/Visuals/Graphic Organizers. This seems to be an area where I am finally now getting confident about using these strategies, but I still look forward to more improvement as I learn more from this unit.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
110 Equity
I found the article The Silenced Dialogue to be perhaps the most interesting of the articles that we have read so far— it reminded me of the conversations we had about Diversity and Achievement during the summer institute.
Question:
Given what we have learned in this article, what is the answer for a teacher who does not know the language? Frankly, after reading the article I am grappling more than ever with what I am likely doing wrong, how inaccessible the information might be because of my lack of cultural knowledge, etc. I especially found myself puzzled by some of the conversation on the implications of language in culture of power versus a culture without the nuanced language that I am accustomed to speaking with. (34). I often find myself asking students questions like “What should you be doing to get on green again?” or “How does a Rocketeer behave?” in my classroom management. The idea of indirect adherence to rules that Delpit spoke of is something that I think I struggle with—should I just be more direct to help these children? Or is not helping them at all if I am not using the language of the culture of power?
Quote:
“The rules or codes I’m speaking of relate to linguistic forms, communicative strategies, and presentation of self; that is, ways of talking, ways of writing, ways of dressing and ways of interacting. [3.]The rules of the culture of power are a reflection of the rules of the culture who have power” (25) This piece of the article- listing off the attributes of the ‘culture of power’ stuck with me in a particularly strong way. It is something that I often feel so conflicted on—am I being entirely disrespectful to their ways and culture in my lack of awareness? Our school emphasizes the importance of the culture of power, but what will happen when the ‘power’ this children are getting will inevitably clash with the cultural ties of their families and community?
Comment:
There is so much on this article that was really valuable—it caused me to think back on my own cultural associations, inherent power possessed, etc. I have recently experienced some frustration in terms of student/home/family lives so I think this unit could not possibly come at a better time for me. I am still trying to adjust and learn more about the community that I’m teaching in—I sometimes feel like the biggest outsider among the staff since I do not even speak the appropriate language and I think that drives an inherent divide between myself and the students.
Question:
Given what we have learned in this article, what is the answer for a teacher who does not know the language? Frankly, after reading the article I am grappling more than ever with what I am likely doing wrong, how inaccessible the information might be because of my lack of cultural knowledge, etc. I especially found myself puzzled by some of the conversation on the implications of language in culture of power versus a culture without the nuanced language that I am accustomed to speaking with. (34). I often find myself asking students questions like “What should you be doing to get on green again?” or “How does a Rocketeer behave?” in my classroom management. The idea of indirect adherence to rules that Delpit spoke of is something that I think I struggle with—should I just be more direct to help these children? Or is not helping them at all if I am not using the language of the culture of power?
Quote:
“The rules or codes I’m speaking of relate to linguistic forms, communicative strategies, and presentation of self; that is, ways of talking, ways of writing, ways of dressing and ways of interacting. [3.]The rules of the culture of power are a reflection of the rules of the culture who have power” (25) This piece of the article- listing off the attributes of the ‘culture of power’ stuck with me in a particularly strong way. It is something that I often feel so conflicted on—am I being entirely disrespectful to their ways and culture in my lack of awareness? Our school emphasizes the importance of the culture of power, but what will happen when the ‘power’ this children are getting will inevitably clash with the cultural ties of their families and community?
Comment:
There is so much on this article that was really valuable—it caused me to think back on my own cultural associations, inherent power possessed, etc. I have recently experienced some frustration in terms of student/home/family lives so I think this unit could not possibly come at a better time for me. I am still trying to adjust and learn more about the community that I’m teaching in—I sometimes feel like the biggest outsider among the staff since I do not even speak the appropriate language and I think that drives an inherent divide between myself and the students.
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